The Canary Tumlaren

Nobody really knows how some sloop drawings made by a Scandinavian designer could arrive to Las Palmas, probably to the “Real Club Nautico de Gran Canaria”, and finally to the expert hands of Juan Suárez Quesada, local shipwright with a strong relationship with the “Club”.

Consulting in the local press we can approximate the year of construction of the first tumlare. The newspaper “Falange” dated on 14 June 1944 included a photo of the first boat made in Canarias, the “Tauro”, being her owner Alfonso Morales Martín. The article included the characteristics, length, 8.30 meters; beam, 1.845 meters; ballast, 940 kg, and described the interiors, two berths, a locker, and an icebox, this accommodation eased to do “long voyages” according columnist words.

Newspaper “Falange”. 14 june 1944. The new sloop “Tauro”. Jable. Hemeroteca Digital de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Also, the rig was cited as Bermudian, and that the sail area was 20 square meters. 

In the center Don Juan Suárez Quesada, Tumlaren shipwright. Photo: Manuel Suárez Moreno.

Referred the newspaper to the “Tauro” as the Juan Suárez Quesada masterpiece, made in the popular “La Naval” street, highlighting the shipwright skills -like complete hollow spars with the same quality or even better than the masts made abroad-.  In the last paragraph the journalist pointed to call the boats, three more were under construction, as Canary series.

The “Tauro” Register Document. The boat type appeared as “Tumbarón”, a non-existent word in the Spanish language that could be understood as “Heeler” -“Tumlaren” was a strange word in Spanish-. Registro de Buques. Capitanía Marítima en Las Palmas.

In September of 1944 five yachts were sailing in the first races in Las Palmas. In an ideal Sunday of that month, with flat sea and moderate wind, the boats completed 9 nautical miles in two hours and thirty minutes, winning Enrique Hernández with the number 3, following the number 1 with Alejandro Más, the number 4 with Tomás Lerchundi, the Tauro (finally the number 2) and the number 5, with J.J.Mulet (being the owner Mr.Staib).

Published in Facebook by Chano Dominguez (RIP). Photo: Vicente Boissier Pérez.

In 1946 the local fleet had grown to 11 units. That year was launched one of the more famous Tumlaren in Las Palmas, the “Tony” of Antonio Arias Ruiz. In that time there was just two sailboats classes in the Club, the “Tumlaren” and the “Hispanias”, a Spanish class. The club fleet included some yachts too, like the “Tirma”, probably an international eight meter built in 1910.

The sloop "Tony" with a slighty modified cabin. Published in facebook by Chano Dominguez (RIP). Photo: Toni Arias Mejías.

The tumlare number 3, also called “Esperanza”, took part on the “San Gines” race in 1947 with her new owner, Federico Ramos Madera. The “San Ginés” was a race from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, to Arrecife, Lanzarote, -112 miles-, normally against the tradewind, made annually on August or September. In the return voyage to Las Palmas the “Esperanza” arrived las Palmas only 10 minutes later that the “Tirma”.

The fame of the tumlaren to cope with tough weather conditions reach a maximum in the unprotected Canary waters. The good behavior of the boat with rough sea and strong winds made to one Tumlare to win the 1955 “San Gines” race, in fact, with difficult conditions, the “Mistery” was the only yacht to arrive in Arrecife, after 39 hours and 40 minutes of hard fight against the wind. The helmsman in that race was Colacho García.

Two Tumlaren in the San Gines race departure. Antena de Lanzarote. 7 June 1953. Jable. Hemeroteca Digital de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

By 1957 just six tumlaren remained active in the races, Virgilio Suárez Almeida “Conchitina”, Bernardino Valle Benítez “María Teresa”, Antonio Arias Mejías “Tony“, Teófilo Angulo Brito “Dulce María”, Pedro González Medina “Esperanza”, and Juan Ojeda Hernández “Mistery”. Some units were sold to Santa Cruz de Tenerife and other boats simply decayed, abandoned by their owners. In 1968 just one or two boats were still sailing in racings against other yachts (i.e. Francisco Beneyto tumlare “Lobo”). 

Around 15 boats were constructed by Juan Suarez for the local fleet and some of them were registered in the Spanish maritime administration Register, but not all (and some of them at the end of their racing life), due to this it is impossible to know the exact number.

When Juan Suarez started to build tumlaren, his fame of good professional went out of Canary Islands soon and started to have orders from the mainland sailors, mainly from Barcelona. At least nine boats appear registered for Barcelona owners. The list is showed below.

• 1945. Temisa. Adolfo Ley Gracia.

• 1945. Agarimo. Leopoldo Curbera Alonso.

• 1946. Tory. Miguel Sans Mora.

• 1946. Simbad. Santiago Martí Segura.

• 1947. Daina. Ignacio Escayola Catarinen.

• 1947. Magec. Manuel Romero Ojeda.

• 1947. Pepito. Jose Andreu Millares.

• 1947. Cenit III. Ignacio Coll Rodríguez.

• 1947. Xurelo. José Cerdeiras Rey.

We can find this boats in the newspaper “La Vanguardia” of that time, racing in October 1947, at least the “Tory” (the winner), “Simbad”, ”Daina” and “Temisa”. In February 1948 won the races the “Cenit III” being the “Daina” second, and in 1960 the “Simbad” and the “Agarimo” were still racing.  

The magazine “Classic Boat” in its issue of January 2019, published a comprehensive article about the Melbourne, Australia, fleet of tumlaren, including the history and actual condition of the fleet. Also, reviewed the tumlaren growth worldwide and pointed the fleet distribution in different countries, between UK, Canada or Denmark, the Canary Islands were named as a separate fleet, although as we could see before some tumlaren were out of ours waters, to Catalonia.

Classic Boat Magazine. January 2019 Issue. Reference to the Canary Islands Tumlaren fleet. http://www.classicboat.co.uk

Nowadays is impossible to find a canary tumlare in our waters, just one remain far from the coast, in a remote place inside the south west of the Gran Canaria island. I do not have idea about the actual condition of the Barcelona boats.

2016. The last canary Tumlare, the “Tony”, in bad condition and covered with FRP. Photo: Daniel Rodríguez.

As the Classic Boat article says the tumlare (porpoise in Swedish) was defined by Knud Reimers, her designer, as a mix of a canoe, an archipelago cruiser (*) and a Norwegian 19.5 sq.m. spidsgatter (**). The drawings can be downloaded freely from the Stockholm Maritime Museum webpage, is nobody interested in build a new one?

Tumlare drawings. https://www.sjohistoriska.se/en/collections/archives  https://digitaltmuseum.se

Daniel Rodríguez Zaragoza. 01/01/2019

Notes:

(*) Referred to the island archipelago around Stockholm.

(**) See the article http://apuntesjdrz.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-history-of-classic-boat_20.html

In Memory Of Chano Domínguez (RIP), canary sailing history lover. 

Acknowledgement.

Manuel Suárez Moreno.

Bibliography.

Tumlaren race video. 1949. Gran Canaria, imágenes del ayer. RTVE.

https://www.facebook.com/129963507207474/videos/2226287054319842/

https://www.sjohistoriska.se/en/collections/archives  https://digitaltmuseum.se.

http://www.classicboat.co.uk

https://www.lavanguardia.com/hemeroteca.

“Regata Internacional de San Ginés, 50 Aniversario, 1947-1997”. Mario Alberto Perdomo. Casino Club Náutico de Arrecife. 1997. Depósito Legal: M-30.397-1997.

Registro de Buques archive. Capitanía Marítima en Las Palmas.

Jable. Hemeroteca Digital de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria